Carl Became Charles
by AngorMike
Summary: When a fresh version of the author's avatar Carl made his way into the Marvel universe.
1. Chapter 1

Carl had been drifting in blessed sleep for such a wonderful stretch of time, that the abrupt awakening felt like he'd been slapped in the face with a trout again. The fishy smell, the flapping tail slapping left, right, left, right was more an offense to his pride than a physical hurt. But it was the only thing his relatives would talk about for the next several family reunions after the incident, as they laughed at his clown act.

Carl once more locked up the memory of being slapped with a fish deep in the recesses of his mind. He refused to acknowledge the whole ridiculous encounter on the banks of the Salt River. Never happened.

Finally able to turn his attention away from embarrassing memories, Carl tried to figure out his current situation. Physically he felt fine, but he was confined in some kind of fluid. His lungs weren't working to bring him oxygen, but he didn't feel oxygen starved. He felt a pulsing from his navel.

Thrum-thrum. Thrum-thrum. Thrum-thrum.

All the clues added together made him aware that he was in the womb. Apparently he had reincarnated with his past life's memories. What a fantastic thing, it was like he'd won the lottery. The idea of losing everything that made him, him, was an uncomfortable idea. So he was very pleased he still remembered himself.

Now that Carl had figured out his situation, he turned his attention to what had woken him up. It was quite unusual for people to be aware in the womb. He explored what his senses told him, then delved into the confines of his mind, combing through his bodies memories of the time just before he awoke, Carl realized the specs for his new body were quite high.

Already, as an undeveloped fetus, he could feel that the bounds of his mind were quite wide. He could indistinctly sense his surroundings with his mind, which is a sensation he'd never had before. Carl guessed that he had some kind of psychic powers in this body.

'I guess psychic powers are my golden cheat.' Carl chortled to himself. 'The reincarnation roulette wheel didn't let me down!'

Carl soon determined what had alarmed his gift so much that it woke his consciousness up. His psychic gifts had sensed a presence next to him. The presence felt opposite of what his mind and body felt like, and his gift had been on the verge of lashing out to protect himself.

Reaching out with his new mind powers to see just what it was that alarmed his gift, Carl was left flabbergasted at the stupidity of his fetus self. The presence that he'd sensed was his twin in the womb next to him.

'Thank goodness I woke up in time!' Carl wiped the sweat off his brow in his imagination. 'My stupid baby self almost attacked my sister!'

Carl sensed that his sister was still upset by the start of the attack his awakening had aborted. Reaching out with his mind powers, Carl started broadcasting a lullaby to his sister, sending feelings of love and comfort through his psychic powers to calm her down. It seemed to work, as her mind started sending back thoughts of love and happiness. After only a few minutes, his sister fell asleep.

'Crisis averted.' Carl congratulated himself. 'That would have been the shittiest way to start a new life, by hurting my dear baby sister!' Carl marveled at the lovely feedback of feelings he was getting from his sister. He was already loving his psychic powers. He swore to himself that he'd be the best big brother ever. He already knew he had the abilities to make sure no sleazy guy took advantage of her.

'Use a shotgun to threaten them? Cliché, and it lets them make a report to the police later. Erase all their memories of my sister so they leave her alone? World class big brother!' Carl plotted imaginary protection scenarios.

Exercising his powers must have tired Carl out, because he soon fell back asleep, joining his sister in slumber. If his fetus mouth had been developed enough, it would be stretched wide in a smile at the excitement of having a twin to share his new life with. Even though his life ended in a tragic accident in his previous life, he was feeling optimistic about this life. Things were already looking up for Carl.

* * *

Over the next several weeks Carl spent a lot of his time catnapping. He would often be woken up by his sister kicking him. He was amused by the little brat demanding attention from him. The thought that he was making his sister spoiled by paying her so much attention didn't really cross his mind. What else could he do anyway but run through songs in his mind to entertain her? Until they were born he was stuck with nothing else to do.

Aside from singing to his sister, Carl spent time playing with his mind powers. In his past life, even as an adult, he'd never had such a clear mind and fast thinking ability. He started work on creating a mind palace where he could organize his past life's memories, to ensure they weren't lost.

After thinking about it, all the effort that Carl spent playing with his powers is probably why he spent so much time napping. Using psychic powers before he was born was amazing, but at the same time, exhausting for one so young.

The time finally came for Carl and his sister to emerge into the world, and the less said about it, the better, as far as he was concerned. He decided that the memory of what it felt like to be pushed through the birth canal was another one of those memories to be buried in the deep dark recesses of his mind. Labeled "Never to be Opened".

Carl was pleased that he was able to make sure he exited first. There was no way he was going to let his sister pull the older sibling card. He was going to be the big brother here.

Shortly after being born, as he and his sister lay in his new mother's arms, Carl got quite the shock. He finally learned just who he had been born as. His new name was Charles Francis Xavier. He was born as freaking Professor X in the Marvel Universe.

Holy-Freaking-Shit.

No wonder he had such crazy mind powers, even from when he was a bun in the oven.

His twin sister's name was Cassandra Nova Xavier.

Carl thought back to what almost happened right before he'd woken up his past life's memories. His fetus mind, being the dumb baby that he was, was about to attack his twin. He thought back to what he knew about Professor X from the comics, and Carl realized that if he hadn't woken up, then his powers would have caused Cassandra to be miscarried.

From what Carl remembered, later in life Professor X had found some crazy legend about "Mummudrai" from the Shi'ar. Carl didn't remember exactly what it was beyond some stupid idea that there were some people that had to fight their "anti-person" in the womb before being born.

In Carl's opinion, the whole idea was presented to Professor X by the Shi'ar chick he was banging in order to make him feel better about killing his twin in the womb. Yeah, it sucked that Professor X felt guilty about being such an ass that he murdered his twin, but trying to make him feel better about himself by saying his twin was "evil" and needed to die, was such B.S.

Not to mention the fact that it casts Professor X as such a virtuous person that his "anti-self" was evil, and in need of putting down. When the reality was, his twin was just an innocent little baby in the womb and Professor X's powers caused a horrible accident.

Professor X wasn't some Buddha, exalted above the common mortals. But he wasn't necessarily some evil person either. He was just a baby himself at the time with no control of his powers. But he let himself start to believe he was better than everyone, and the Shi'ar legend let him comfort himself that he was justified in whatever he did. After all, he was such a virtuous person that he had to fight an evil version of himself in the womb. Naturally he's more exalted than others.

'/sarcasm' Carl thought to himself as he considered Professor X's life.

Professor X's firm belief in his moral superiority led to him taking all kinds of shortcuts and abusing his mental powers to make things easier for himself. One example of this behavior that Carl remembered from the comics was when one of the Professor's poorly trained B teams was killed when he had sent them into danger to save his A team.

So the Professor naturally wiped the memory of the B team from his A team so they wouldn't question Professor X's abilities to lead the X-Men. It was _totally_ the most logical choice.

Then drama ensued when one of the B team, the sibling of one of the A team members, turned up alive and found out that his own freaking sibling didn't remember him due to the mind wipe from the Professor. Talk about horrible drama and betrayal of trust. It was a perfect example to Professor X's allies they really couldn't trust Professor X to stay out of their minds, or even to make decent decisions.

Another example was how Jean Grey, through the Phoenix Force, had access to Phenomenal Cosmic Power™, and instead of helping her gain control of it, Professor X was afraid he couldn't control Jean Grey. So he locked up her memories and abilities in order to keep control of her. Which turned out to be a piss poor decision when she broke through the chains shackling her memory. She was understandably furious at his manipulations.

With no training or experience handling that great entity, Phoenix Force, Jean/Phoenix rebelled against everything. She explored the more physical and sensual sides of life. She hooked up with enemies of the X-Men, and she did whatever she felt like doing at the time. Which included a lot of property damage. All because Professor X thought he knew best and didn't trust those around him to handle their shit.

Example after example of Professor X's life made Carl realize that he too would be tempted to abuse the people around him with his strong mental powers. Professor X was supposedly the strongest telepath on the planet, everyone's mind around him must have been an open book. And Carl inherited the same power set. So he had to set some rules to govern himself.

Carl decided that his rules would have more impact on him, and be easier to follow, if he related them to stories and people that he remembered from his past life. Prohibited actions would be linked to story characters he despised so he didn't follow their example. Good things would be linked to heroes to emulate.

**Rule 1: Don't pull a Sasuke.** (Don't be a traitor.)

The Uchiha in the Naruto comics had eyes that could copy any jutsu they saw, allowing them to steal precious techniques from other ninja. Sasuke Uchiha was so consumed by desire for power so he could get his revenge on his brother for massacring their clan, that he would do anything. Even steal from his allies. Even kill his allies.

But Carl was of the opinion that traitors are scum and they deserve nothing good. No matter what justification existed in their minds, betrayal was betrayal.

And while Carl had the ability to be a bigger asshole than Sasuke could be, he had no desire to go down that route. Touching an ally's minds without permission was verboten.

**Rule 2: Don't pull a Dumbledore.**

They say "Forgiveness is divine."

'Well, then, that is between you and whatever God you believe in.' Carl thought.

Carl acknowledged to himself that people can change, so a bad person might eventually change for the better. But Carl also firmly believed that maintaining a hierarchy of importance in regards to decisions and people was important so he could live with himself. Not all life was equally important to Carl. If the decision was between the life of a rapist or his sister, he would choose his sister's life. It was a no brainer choice.

The rule boils down to being aware of a simple fact: The crocodile tears and promises to change of a defeated evil guy are worth less than compost. If he's got an enemy on the ropes, and the enemy begs for clemency while their life is in danger of being snuffed: don't believe them, just snuff them. Don't let them make a comeback and do more evil.

And since Carl has reincarnated, then obviously there is at least one form of afterlife. Physically dying isn't exactly the end of a person, so stopping the actions of evil people who harm and murder innocents is not an evil act. It's putting down a rabid dog.

**Rule 3:…**

'I got nothing else right now. I'll have to come up with something more, later. I can't have only two rules for life.' Carl thought as he was cooed at by his mother. 'Besides, I'm a little distracted here, having just been born.' Carl thought as he fell asleep.

* * *

Over the next few years, Carl began to think of himself as Charles more and more, because that's what everyone was calling him. When in Rome. His father was named Dr. Brian Xavier, and his mother was Sharon Xavier.

Charles spent a lot of his extra time training his abilities. He soon discovered that while he had a major gift for telepathy, he also had a minor gift in telekinesis. Well, minor in comparison to his telepathy. He was able to lift tens of pounds while less than a year old. Charles definitely won the reincarnation lottery.

While practicing his abilities, he would entertain Cassandra with his telekinesis. Which led to Charles learning that Cassandra had a major gift for telekinesis. She would get tired of him teasing her by hovering a toy just outside of her reach, and snatch it with her mind.

The first time she snatched the toy away from him using her own massive gift for telekinesis, Charles was quite surprised for a moment, then immensely proud of her for her ability. He let her know about it too, beaming happy feelings to her. He then turned "keep away" into a game between them to train their abilities.

Which led to him discovering that Cassandra had a major gift for telekinesis and a minor gift in telepathy. Charles knew Cassandra's gift for telekinesis was massive, since as a baby with a baby's mind, she was already better at telekinesis than him. She always won the keep away game. Her telepathing her amused feelings to him while he pretended to pout always made her day at having won the game.

Finding out that he and Cassandra had kind of opposite skills, confirmed for Charles that Professor X probably bought wholesale the whole anti-self nonsense. Living with the bubbly, happy Cassandra affirmed to Charles that his sister was not evil.

Except for after certain meals and she would fill up her diaper will pure, concentrated evil. Thankfully Charles didn't have to deal with that for too long, though. Cassandra matured quickly, probably due to Charles' influence and his high priority on potty training himself and his sister. So he didn't have to deal with the evil that is baby diapers for too long.

By eavesdropping on the adults conversations, Charles learned many things of note. Charles and Cassandra were born in the year 1932, just a few years after the Great Depression. His father was independently wealthy and had a PhD in Physics. The Xaviers had not participated greatly in the stock market speculation that led to the stock market crash, and as a result much of their wealth had been secure and not lost. That allowed Dr. Xavier to purchase several properties at rock bottom prices after the crash.

Quite a few families that would have been kicked out of their home or apartment, due to not being able to pay rent, were able to stay while the Xaviers ate the cost in the turbulent time. After a few years, once the economy was getting better, the investment and kindness of not kicking people out was paying off as the people could once more afford to pay their rent, and the price of the properties rose once again.

A little charity and a sound investment left the Xaviers well thought of in the community, and their estate was much richer. A clear win-win. Charles was proud of his parents' well planned out actions. They were financially savvy and socially aware. They made a great profit in a time of opportunity without sacrificing their morals.

As Charles and Cassandra became more mobile, one of the documentaries from his past life about tigers was brought to mind. A key point the documentary made about the development of the tiger cubs was that the rough play and wrestling the cubs engaged in was a way for the tiger cubs to build up the strength they needed for hunting in later life. It built the foundation for their great strength. By the time they were adults they were powerful hunting animals.

As a result of remembering this factoid about the development of the tiger cubs, Charles made sure he was a very active kid. Crawling, and then soon running, everywhere he could. And he encouraged Cassandra to join him in getting around. The mental contact the twins kept with each other as they played added an extra dimension of music and imagination the watching adults never understood.

Charles also worked hard to build up his and his sister's psychic powers over those early years under the same idea that early in life was a key time to build their "mental muscles". He hoped the same principal of his body and the tiger cubs would apply. He made sure that Cassandra joined him in his "games" while keeping it secret from the adults.

Due to the nature of his gifts, Charles worked especially hard at a few key exercises. By the time he was seven, he was able to split his mental consciousness in two. In essence, he had two minds running concurrently.

Using his telepathy, his two mental processes, two minds, would always be in contact with each other to coordinate their actions. That way he was able to have one mind control his body, while the other was in charge of his using his psychic gifts. This would benefit him greatly in the future when he would inevitably find himself in fights with meta-humans. Being able to multitask so effectively would be difficult for an enemy to counter his moves.

This technique for having two minds also made it easier for Charles to endure elementary school. He could pay attention to the teacher and class, and be social, while also studying advanced topics so he didn't feel like he was wasting time in school. His ability to view his surroundings through his psychic abilities rather than his eyes allowed him to read closed books in his bag while paying attention at school. It would also be very useful in keeping track of a battlefield.

Charles also worked hard to practice keeping his mental awareness open when not directly focused on "looking" around. Not to read the minds of people around him, but to be aware of the location of people and mental presences around him, and be aware of their intentions. He hoped it would develop to be similar to Spiderman's spider sense in giving him a little warning system of inbound danger.

He knew he was in the Marvel Universe, and that the upcoming years were bound to be chaotic. There were many groups that would love nothing more than to kill or control him and other meta-humans like him in the coming years. Getting used to being paranoid and aware of attacks was good practice for future defense.

He also worked hard on expanding his telepathic range. If he could be good enough that he didn't need the machine Cerebro as a crutch to exercise his power, then he could be more mobile and not stuck in a single location. He would be able to sortie where he was needed. He also wasn't going to let himself get crippled by no alien, so being mobile for missions and not reliant on a stationary machine to exert his skills was absolutely necessary.

One of the things that Charles was immensely proud about his sister was how extremely intelligent she was. He wasn't sure if it was because of how much they stayed in mental connection with each other, or she was naturally that way. She was extremely mature for her age, but loved being a spoiled brat because he let her get away with it. He couldn't help himself when she busted out the puppy dog eyes.

"Would those puppy dog eyes count as a check in the 'evil' column?" Charles would joke with Cassandra. "It's obviously some kind of mind control!" He melodramatically proclaimed, causing Cassandra to bust out laughing.

"No, silly brother. You just know I'm right. It's my prerogative as a woman to use whatever weapon is necessary to let you realize it." The little imp smirked back, victorious once again.

* * *

By the time that Charles and Cassandra were nine, Charles could tell that Cassandra bucked all the typical female stereotypes, aside from being cute as a button. Maybe it was due to her strong telekinetic powers, but Cassandra loved building things, and learning how things worked. She was a hands on (telekinesis on) type of girl.

In late February of 1941, Charles finally mentally spotted the person he'd been looking for in his telepathic scans each evening. He'd been having a hard time finding him, but by scanning through the military network around New York, he'd finally located Dr. Abraham Erskine.

Now that Charles had located him, and determined a time frame for certain events, he could enact his plan that he'd been stewing on for nine years.

Charles immediately dragged Cassandra with him and snuck out of the house at night while covering their absence with mental suggestions to their parents to not pay attention to them not being there. This was an absolutely vital mission. There was no way they could miss this opportunity.

Charles got the timing absolutely perfect. They arrived at the lab minutes after Dr. Erskine perfected the Super Soldier Serum, but before Steve Rogers got his dose. Using a psychic whammy, Charles had Dr. Erskine perform the procedure on him and Cassandra, while mentally keeping everyone away from the lab.

Physically upgrading every aspect of their bodies would have been quite a painful experience if they didn't have their psychic abilities to be able to disconnect their awareness from their pain receptors.

After the procedure, Charles made sure to wipe away the memory of them from Dr. Erskine and the others who helped. A clean operation, with no evidence left behind, so they wouldn't be targeted in the future for having the serum.

When they finally arrived home, Charles was exultant. One of his great worries was finally solved! With the super soldier serum, he and his sister maximized their physical bodies such that they wouldn't go bald due to their strong psychic talents. Sure, the physical upgrades were nice, but having hair was much nicer!

It would be a huge shame to deprive the world of his beautiful blonde locks, and there was no way he would let his sister suffer the loss of her hair. Even in his past life when he was a clueless guy he knew a woman's hair was _Important._

On a side note, Charles noticed that the maximization of their bodies to peak performance also increased his and his sister's speed of thought, ability to memorize data, and it increased their psychic abilities a few steps up. It looks like the peak performance claim wasn't limited to the physical, but the mental as well. Which made sense to him, the brain is also part of the human hardware after all.

Charles and Cassandra resumed their daily lives with no one even aware they had been gone. They appeared physically the same after the treatment as they looked before.

Charles wondered if their appearance didn't change much because they had already been quite healthy for their age, unlike Steve Rogers at the time he received treatment. Or if the fact they hadn't been through puberty yet would greatly affect how the serum changed them as they matured.

It also made him wonder if having gone through the process before they were fully grown would give them bigger gains than Steve Rogers, got once they finished growing. Maybe the fact that Charles and Cassandra were already very physically fit and healthy individuals, while Rogers had been a physically weak and sickly person, would determine the end results?

Each individual's "peak performance" was bound to be different due to genetics. So the question of how different people's genetics affected the outcome of the serum was still up in the air.

As for how much Charles would benefit from the serum as a full adult, only time and puberty could answer that.

At any rate, Charles had made sure to memorize the formula and process of administering the serum so he could use it later if needed for his allies. Some of those questions could wait for later testing, when the science and technology was more advanced.

In the meantime he and Cassandra would continue their exercising. Charles soon realized that his increased physical abilities outstripped his exercise equipment. He would have to get his father and mother to buy or have made much more robust exercise equipment. It wouldn't do to let his potential go to waste. Maybe have the puppy dog mind control sister convince them?

Charles continued to mentally monitor Dr. Erskine, and attempted to keep him from being killed by the Hydra assassin's bullets. Just because he got what he wanted from Erskine was no reason to leave him out to dry.

And Charles didn't put much stock in the nonsense of trying to "keep the timeline intact". He was a different person from Professor X, he had different knowledge and priorities. And he wasn't some kind of god to play with reality and make it do what he wants.

The perfect example of this was the results of trying to protect Dr. Erskine remotely through his abilities. Charles' powers range had gotten good enough, he attempted to confuse the Hydra assassin's senses when the assassin attacked the lab while remaining in the safety of his home.

Despite his psychic powers and the advanced strength and speed from the super soldier serum, he was still only nine years old, and untrained. He wasn't prepared to test himself against trained killers just yet, when his life was on the line. And especially when he would be unable to go in person without his sister tagging along. He wasn't prepared to let Cassie get anywhere near assassins when they were still so young.

Charles succeeded in spoiling the assassin's aim when he fired at Dr. Erskine in such a way that when the assassin fled the scene, the assassin he thought he had actually shot Dr. Erskine. Unfortunately the assassin also sabotaged the equipment before Charles realized what he was doing, and Dr. Erskine died in the resultant explosion while attempting to save his equipment and data.

It shook up Charles a bit. He had mentally watched Dr. Erskine's mind slip away into death, which was not a pleasant sensation. He was a little sad he hadn't been able to prevent the doctor's death, but there was no way he was going to attempt to protect him when he and Cassie were still only nine.

The whole episode served Charles as an object lesson in just how wrong things can go when someone tries to manipulate and finagle something so chaotic as combat into what they want it to be. His powers were great and…powerful…'/snicker'…but there were still limits to what he could and couldn't control.

His new life wasn't a comic book, with moral lessons at the end of each issue. He also wasn't under the mistaken impression that he was obligated to let certain events happen while trying to "twist" them into some semblance of the timeline he remembers from the comic books in order for certain people to learn "life lessons". He felt free to make of the world and his life what he could.

But at the same time he wasn't necessarily in control of what would be the results of his actions.

And anyway if Charles remembered right, the people in the comics were miserable from all the stupid drama, hate, and physical threats. So doing what he could to make life better for his family, and incidentally everyone else, was high on his priority list.

So Charles took note of this lesson. In the future if he wants to stop an assassin, especially a Nazi one, Charles won't hold back or pussyfoot around trying to finagle the outcome. 'Swift death for Nazis and other murderous scum is the best method to get the results you want.' Charles nodded to himself.

**Rule 3: Don't be Vizzini the Sicilian when death is on the line. Swift death to all Nazis.**

If Charles ever told anyone his rules to live by, it would be quite a few years before the movies and shows were made so they would make sense to anyone but him.

* * *

Over the next five years Charles focused on his school and training. He wasn't too broken up about being too young to be drafted into the war. As admirable as the men were who made victory over the Nazis possible, it was a bloody difficult conflict that shook up and changed the way the world was. No place for a nine year old at all.

He and Cassie were skipped ahead a few years, so they graduated High School in 1946 at the age of 14. Due to being a few years younger than average he had an easy reason available not to participate in team sports. Which was good, because it would have been too easy to slip up and show that a 13-14 year old was far stronger than he had any right to be, leading to questions. Questions that Charles had no intention of letting anyone realize they should be asked, let alone answered.

Charles had continued to train hard physically with his homemade gym and weights. At 14 years old he was already lifting 700 pounds over his head. Another 100 pounds and he would be as strong as adult Captain America was after receiving the serum. By the time he was fully grown he was sure he would be stronger than Captain America. A little point that Charles felt some secret smugness over.

It wasn't like there weren't plenty of beings stronger than Captain America out there, but the reputation that Steve Rogers gained while being frozen was a little too…perfect. Annoyingly perfect. Like he wasn't also a human being, but something greater.

It would probably be quite annoying to the man himself when he was unfrozen in the future. In addition to losing everything and everyone he knew, he would have to live up to some impossible reputation while dealing with culture shock and a whole host of other issues.

After thinking seriously about the issues facing Captain America, or rather Steve Rogers, Charles gave a serious thought on how to help the man in the future. The man was actually someone to admire. He wasn't originally physically strong, but he had great bravery. He gave his own body to an experimental procedure that would give their country a chance to turn the tides against the great war machine that was the Axis powers. He worked hard to help out in a time of war and darkness. In the end he sacrificed his life to save others.

Charles' grandparents in his previous life had both served in World War 2, so he had a lot of respect for the people that answered the call to serve. He knew the type of men they were. And the type of man Steve Rogers was.

Charles would scoff at helping some kind of heroic ubermensch. But helping a man like Steve Rogers was doable. Charles made plans that would be enacted sometime in the future.

In the summer of 1946 the Xavier family traveled to New Mexico. Their father had a project that he was requested to consult for. Charles and Cassandra were planning on starting college that year, so the family decided they would join Dr. Xavier in New Mexico to spend more time as a family until they started College.

When they arrived in New Mexico, the scientists that Dr. Xavier would be working with had a family meet and greet where everyone could get to know each other.

Charles was enjoying himself in the social setting, joking and teasing his baby sister, when he starting hearing someone loudly thinking about their plans. One of the scientists was paid to steal the project's data and cause sabotage to make the project fail. The scientist planned to cause the nuclear reactor to overheat and cause an accident. He figured in the chaos he could get away with the theft and no one would know what he'd done.

[Hear that sis?] Charles asked Cassandra, linking her in on what he had heard psychically. Because of their abilities, Charles had felt it was pointless to try to hide his memories of his past life from his sister, and had long shown her his memories of his past life, including the comics detailing their lives in this universe. She was incredibly happy she had Charles/Carl, instead of Professor X for a brother. Not only was her life great, she still had her hair.

Charles was pissed. This was the "accident" that killed their father in the comics, leading to their mother remarrying Dr. Kurt Marko, the abusive ass, and leading to Cain, who would become the Juggernaut, becoming his step brother. No way was he going to let his father die, let alone let his kind mother become a drunk because of the abuse the ass Marko would direct her way.

Especially since in this life he had a cute little sister to protect. It didn't matter that she could pancake most any threat on her own, it was his right as a brother to protect his sister. And he was using that prerogative in any way Cassandra would let Charles get away with.

No way was he going to be related in any way with Cain Marko. And without Professor X's interference when Cain Marko tried deserting during the Korean war, it would be unlikely Cain would stumble into finding the gem that would turn him into Juggernaut. Even Cain Marko still became The Juggernaut, Charles didn't have the mental hang-ups Professor X did, so he wouldn't have any problems dealing with Juggernaut in a more effective way.

And without Professor X making Cain Marko feel inadequate, maybe Cain wouldn't turn into such a thug. But if he did turn into the thuggish Juggernaut and became a threat, then Charles would deal with him. Which led to his next rule.

**Rule 4: Be like Ji Ning. Return kindness and enmity in kind.**

Ji Ning was the protagonist of a Chinese Xianxia novel, The Desolate Era. He was a reincarnate from Earth into the cultivation world. So Charles kind of identified with him. Throughout Ji Ning's life, he always treated his loved people with kindness and cherished them. But he would go to great lengths to protect his loved ones, while he would be ruthless to his enemies.

Being kind to the enemy is being cruel to the innocent. A perfect example is Batman never killing the Joker. Every time Batman let the Joker live, he would break out of prison and kill innocent people, over and over. If Batman had just ended the Joker, many civilians would never have been killed.

[Yeah. His plans would kill dad and many others.] Cassandra replied to Charles in consternation. Charles could feel the shift in her mind as she made a hard decision. [Take care of it, brother. Don't let dad die.]

Following Rule 4 and making his decision to protect his family with Cassandra's blessing, Charles scanned the scientist's mind. Getting enough information about the man and his plans, Charles waited for the evening, when everyone was asleep except for the gate guards. He projected his mind's power to the scientist, putting him in a fugue state where he would be susceptible to commands.

Charles influenced the scientist to write a list of his crimes and what he had been planning, including who forced/paid him to do it. Finally, he finished his suicide note by stating he couldn't go through with it, but he had no other options. After signing his suicide note the scientist went to his room and hung himself. He would be found in the morning when he didn't show up for work.

Sitting up on his bed in the house they had rented for the summer after finishing the gruesome task, Charles immediately noted Cassandra sitting in a chair in his room. He had been so focused on his task, he hadn't noticed her enter.

Seeing that he was finished, Cassandra moved over next to him on the bed, hugging him. She shared her love for him, and trust in him, letting him know he wasn't a monster for ending the life of someone who would take their loved ones away from them.

"Thank you." Charles whispered as a ghost of a smile appeared on his mouth, reassured that she didn't think he was a monster.


	2. Chapter 2

Charles and Cassandra continued to be on guard against further attempts to cause accidents, but the suicide note made the authorities aware of the issue, and those who hired the scientist had ceased their attempts and moved to protect themselves from further repercussions.

The method of sabotaging the reactor had solely been the scientist's plan, not those who paid him to steal the data. So Charles felt it was sufficient for now to leave the group to be harassed by the authorities instead of going on some murderous rampage. They were thieves, but they weren't murderous thieves, so Charles could live with that outcome.

Besides, the thieves had contacted the scientist anonymously so Charles wasn't able to ferret out their identity from his scan of the scientist's mind. He could maybe have worked hard to scan minds until he found the thieves, but felt it wasn't a good use of his time for now.

And both Charles and Cassandra hadn't been willing to play bait the badger out of its hole when it involved the lives of their family, which is why they ended the threat the sabotaging scientist posed so decisively, instead of trying to use him to find the thieves.

As a result, the rest of the summer was peaceful. Once the hullaballoo surrounding the suicide had calmed down, Dr. Xavier had been able to complete his part of the project by the end of the summer.

So the family moved back home to New York at the end of summer, and Charles and Cassandra began attending Bard College in New York. They had decided to attend a local college for their undergraduate degrees in order to be close to home. They were still underage, and their parents would be worried if they were half the world away.

Charles had decided that he would follow in the general direction of Professor X's original studies so he could understand and work with the mutants he knew would be coming. He would study biology, genetics, biophysics, and medicine. Making a name for himself in the genetics field, he could set himself up as an authority about "mutants".

But the first thing he would do after becoming that expert would be to take a page out of some fanfiction stories he'd read in his past life, and rebrand mutants. Well, Charles guessed they hadn't been branded yet, so he would brand them right to begin with.

The term "mutant" had all kinds of negative connotations. Especially after nuclear weapons gave humanity a scare. Calling them "mutants" after that would be especially bad. Calling them "gifted", "blessed, or even "meta-human" would be better.

'Gotta have better PR if we want to stymie all the hate.' Charles commented to himself.

And after the whole Nazi thing, calling them Homo Superior is just asking to be compared to racist terrorist monsters. The thing to emphasize would be how adaptable the human race is, and that being "gifted" is just another aspect of being human. Emphasize that they are part of the tribe, and not other, in order to not freak people out.

Cassandra had chosen to focus on Physics, Mechanical & Electrical Engineering, and Metallurgical sciences. Cassandra's passion and focus on physics and engineering had long been apparent to them both, which fit in with their plans well. Charles would focus on the biological sciences and Cassandra would focus more on the technology.

Having long ago shared with Cassandra what he knew about their corner of the multiverse, and how bad things could get, they had made many plans for the future.

When she learned what might have been her fate if he hadn't woken in the womb in time to stop his attack on her, or how she might now be bald if they didn't get the Super Soldier Serum, well. She had been quite teary eyed and grateful that she didn't live that life. And Charles benefitted by rising in her estimation. Charles definitely suffered from a case of Big Brother Hero Syndrome, he would do nearly anything to make sure Cassandra had a good life, and she knew it.

So they had plans for people they would seek to recruit into their group. They would set up shelters and help centers for Meta-humans that had hard lives. They would recruit a plethora of professions to support their group, teach the young, get them educations, and build society so it wasn't full of a bunch of racist assholes.

They still needed combat teams to be able to protect their people and do search and rescue for innocents being hunted. But they weren't going to be doing the governments job for them by attacking dissident Meta groups. That would just make unnecessary enemies for them all around.

Charles believed that the biggest reason Magneto, for example, got as extreme as he did in the comics is because he always had Professor X, the strongest mutant telepath, fighting him at every step. Not only did Magneto have to fight the normies, he had to fight the X-Men, and have them constantly thwart his attempts to save mutants.

So as a result Magneto had to keep going bigger, keep going more hardcore, because it was like _everyone _was against him.

Charles and Cassandra had no such asinine plans to keep thwarting Metas that simply wanted to protect what was theirs, just because they didn't mind getting a bit rough. Charles himself had already gotten his hands dirty, and he wasn't planning on turning into a raging hypocrite anytime soon. Cassie wouldn't let him.

It was a big project, but to build a decent world, it would require a lot of work. And Charles wasn't one of those idiots that thought they could build a Utopia. That idea is just a pipe dream when it comes to humans. Even if you magically got a group of people to have a utopia, twenty years later you'd have a new generation grow up. They'd have a fire in their guts and a desire to make their mark on society and just wreck everything because they were rebelling against their parents.

Because humans exist, change and chaos is an aspect of life that can't be got rid of. So Charles and Cassandra weren't going to try to make a utopia. They just wanted to limit the assholery as much as possible while they are around and protect the human race from extinction at the hands of aliens. Aliens like Thanos, for example. Mister "I snap, you die" wouldn't be allowed to run rampant on their world.

* * *

Charles and Cassandra graduated from Bard College in 1949, they were only 17 years old. They had been getting some amount of fame, graduating from college so young. They could easily have accelerated their education even more, but they spent a great deal of time training their bodies and abilities, networking, and working on their own pet projects so they weren't in a big hurry to graduate.

After many years of practice, Charles had managed to learn how to split his mind into three autonomous minds now. They were all three basically clones of himself, so he didn't worry that one of them would end up being the "dark and evil" part of him that would try to take over and do evil things. And he didn't always run three minds at once, it was somewhat taxing.

But in emergencies or combat, it would be invaluable. He could have one mind in charge of his body, one mind in charge of his psi powers, and one would act as a command and control. It would dedicate itself to keeping track of intel, communications and coordinating his team, tactics, strategy, and battlefield conditions so that Charles would be even more effective on the battlefield.

The upcoming school year, where Charles and Cassandra started working towards their Masters and PhDs would mark the first time the twins would be split up. Cassie was going to attend MIT, and Charles would be at Harvard for two years before attending Oxford.

Charles affected that he didn't see what the big deal was, they were only going to be a few miles away, while secretly feeling the same sense of loss his twin was about going to separated schools, no matter how close they were.

Cassandra's response was to punch him on the shoulder and call him a jerk, which Charles acted like it hurt much more than it did.

At 17 years old, Charles was up to 6 foot 2 inches, while Cassandra was 5 foot 9 inches. He figured, based on his height that was already 2 inches taller than Professor X was in the comics, that the early application of the serum had definitely had an effect. Which Charles was reminded how happy he was for that every time he looked in the mirror and saw he still had his hair. His glorious blonde hair. Boy, did it look good not being bald.

He was now lifting over 1000 pounds, making him stronger than Captain America. And he wasn't finished growing yet, either.

Charles was entirely too smug about that, according to Cassandra.

To which Charles just gave her a raspberry.

Which earned him another thump on the shoulder.

"Worth it." Charles laughed.

Before they set off for the next step of their education, they sat down with their parents to explain their powers to them, and try to convince them to help with their future plans of providing shelter and education to Metas.

Charles and Cassandra were quite surprised when their parents burst into laughter after their big reveal. It turns out their parents had known since they were babies about their telekinetic powers, having caught them playing with their toys. They simply said nothing, allowing the kids to play on their own. Their parents finally couldn't keep serious at the melodrama of the "big reveal", so they broke into laugher.

Charles joined them in laughing long and hard after they finally explained it. Since he made it a point to not abuse his gifts and violate family and friends minds, he never caught on that their parents already knew about their gifts and simply allowed them the pretense of hiding it. It was too funny that the "most powerful telepath on the planet" was blindsided by his own loving parents. Too good.

Their parents were solidly on board with the idea of providing shelter and protection to those who would be hunted by the extreme groups just because they exist. They'd already fought Nazi Germany, they wouldn't stand to see the same bigotry happen in their own country.

Dr. Brian and Sharon Xavier started purchasing a few plots of land around the country and building infrastructure for shelter and schooling. Building the support for future need would make things go a lot smoother than if they waited until the dookie had already hit the fan.

Stupid chaos monkeys, throwing dookie at fans.

* * *

Compared to his past two years at Harvard, 1951 was a busy year for Charles. He had just arrived at Oxford when a certain young lady by the name of Moira Kinross showed up and arranged a meeting with him.

When she arrived at the conference room they'd arranged for the meeting, at first she was very stunned by his appearance.

"Y-you have hair!" Moira Kinross exclaimed.

"Why yes, yes I do." Charles smugly confirmed, running a hand through his glorious locks. 'L'Oreal, because I'm worth it.' Charles still couldn't share his old-future pop culture jokes with anyone other than Cassie.

Moira started to pace and mutter indistinctly to herself. She was very agitated over something. Charles simply watched her with a bemused smile on his face for a few moments.

"And you're taller than you should be." She muttered while glancing at him again.

Charles simply smiled wider at her, having sensed that she meant him no harm, he wasn't particularly nervous about her strange behavior.

"Are you okay, Miss Kinross? You seem a little perturbed. Perhaps we can have some tea, while you gather your thoughts." Charles offered.

"Fine." Moira Kinross muttered, plopping down on the conference room chair while Charles busied himself with the tea service.

Charles calmly sipped his tea, waiting for Moira Kinross to settle down and share with him why she was here. He had some vague impression that this was the lady that he knew as Moira MacTaggert from the comics. All he remembered was that she and Professor X had a history as lovers of some kind, but apparently she ended up marrying some other bloke, named MacTaggert. He had no idea why she would seek him out, or be so surprised that he had hair.

After a few minutes of struggle, Moira Kinross came to a decision. She leaned forward anxiously in her chair and began to explain her reasons for arranging a meeting.

"First off, I'm a mutant. I sought you out because I know you're one too." Moira Kinross began nervously, unsure of how Charles would react to her revealing she knew he was a mutant.

"Meta-human." Charles interrupted.

"What?" Moira Kinross looked stumped at his apparently random words.

"I actually prefer the term Meta-human, or just Meta. Gifted or blessed is also a nice way to describe it." Charles smoothly explained. "The term 'mutant' has many negative connotations. It implies one is no longer human. Which suggests to those of a…_particular_ mindset, that Metas no longer have human rights. Which is simply absurd. I believe it is important to start off as we mean to go on. So it's particularly important that everyone, ourselves included, think of ourselves as humans with a gift. And as humans, we have all the rights and responsibilities therein."

Leaning back in her chair as she thought over his statement, Moira Kinross actually looked a bit relieved at what Charles told her.

"I like that, actually." Moira Kinross relaxed a bit at Charles' easy acceptance of her declaration of her "meta" status. "My…gift, power, whatever is apparently to relive my life after I die. This is my fourth life. After I die, I end up restarting my life from when I was in the womb."

She paused to see how Charles was reacting to her story. Charles simply nodded in acceptance, smiled and gestured to indicate he was listening attentively.

"I was born in 1930, and during my first life I didn't even know I was a mutant-er..a Meta." Moira stumbled over her words. "I thought I was completely normal. So I simply lived my life, only really knowing about the whole conflict from what the newspapers wrote. They labeled it the Human-Mutant War. The war was absolutely vicious. Like you said, they didn't see Metas as human, and they treated them like rabid animals."

Moira paused for a moment, taking a sip of her tea to calm herself.

"The war was still going on when I passed away at the age of 74. The next moment I woke up in the womb again. And once more I was born in 1930. Because I completely remembered my previous life, I was considered a genius by my parents. They were thrilled with my gift of intelligence, and despite it not being popular, encouraged me to use my gifts and enter the world of academia. Wanting to understand just what was happening to me, I dived in wholeheartedly." Moira paused for a moment, her unfocused gaze seemingly reflecting on her past life's memories.

"After some time, I came to the conclusion that I was a Meta. So I began learning as much as I could. I was 44 by the time I came across your papers, Charles Xavier. Studying your background, I learned you had fully accepted the term "mutant" and advocated for peaceful coexistence between humans and mutants." Moira paused to see how Charles would react.

Charles nodded in acceptance of what Moira told him. "Sounds like my other self was a dumbass." He deadpanned. Moira choked on her tea. After getting her coughing under control, Moira stared at him incredulously at labeling himself a dumbass. Little did she know he wasn't the same Professor X she remembered from her past lifes. "Well, as smart as my other self might have been, to be labeled an expert in the field, it seems he had some…hang ups that I don't seem to share with him." Shrugging at her looking like she was questioning his sanity, he asked her to continue.

"Yes, well. I learned that you lived in New York. So I boarded a plane to meet you and learn what you knew about Metas to expand my understanding. Unfortunately the plane crashed, and I woke up again in the womb in 1930 for my third life."

"In my third life, I devoted myself to the studies of Anthropology and Genetics. I wanted to understand why I was the way I was. Why are any of the Metas the way we were. But most of all I wanted to stop reliving my life. And I had no desire to participate in the vicious war that always started between mutants and mankind. I knew you had attended Oxford in your youth, so I also joined Oxford University. When I finally met you, I couldn't stand you. You were so arrogant, selfish, and self entitled. I couldn't stand you."

"Yup, sounds like a dumbass if he managed to chase you away." Charles easily agreed. Since that was a Professor X Charles, and he is a Carl Charles, he didn't really feel bad about throwing him under the bus. "Was he also bald? Is that why you were so surprised to see my gloriously beautiful hair?" Charles asked flirtatiously. Moira giggled a bit as his joking successfully broke the seriousness of the meeting.

"Yes, even so young he'd already lost his hair."

"Poor bloke, maybe that's why he was so dumb." Charles was really throwing Professor X under the bus. It worked, because Moira giggled again at his little joke. "Well, that explains why you were so shocked that I had hair." Charles grinned humorously. "Sounds like if I don't have my hair, I turn into a real idiot. A warning flag for the future." Charles joked.

After calming down, Moira continued her story. "Well, since I couldn't stand you, I went my own way. After living my third life, I just wanted it to end, so I started studying the mutant condition, as I thought of it. I paid a lot of attention to the Human-Mutant conflict. I learned a lot about the major players. I learned you are one of the strongest telepaths on the planet."

Charles merely shrugged. "Guilty, so far as I know. But since I don't know many telepaths yet, I might be one of the weakest for all I know."

"Yes, well, that's what the other you claimed." She remarked, ignoring Charles' muttered "egotistical dumbass" comment. "After years of work, I developed a cure for the Meta condition. It would target the so called X-gene, and turn it off permanently. I wanted my repeating life to finally end. And I thought that if the so called mutants could be turned normal, then the conflict would be over."

Moira paused for a moment to shiver, hugging herself nervously. "Unfortunately there was a seer Meta who saw what I was up to. She called herself Destiny. She showed up at my lab with others. They destroyed my lab and my work. Then she threatened me. She told me that I had ten lives to live as a mutant, and that if I dared to recreate my work again, she would find me again and make this death seem like a walk in the park. Then she had one of the others there burn me to death." Moira was shaking from remembering the pain and fear of that moment.

Charles went to Moira's side placing a hand on her shoulder, seeking to comfort her. She suddenly hugged him, latching on to him like he was a big teddy bear. Charles gently rubbed her back, muttering calming nonsense. Moira gradually calmed down, and let go of Charles abruptly, slightly blushing at her forwardness in their first meeting.

"In this life I wanted to meet you and see if I could get past your past behavior so we could work together. I wanted to get to know the other side, the Meta side. And I'm afraid of Destiny coming after me again. I don't want to burn to death again." Moira confessed to Charles. "I'm willing to let you read my mind, so you can see that I'm speaking the truth." She offered to guarantee her sincerity.

"Miss Kinross-"

"Moira. Call me Moira." Moira interrupted Charles.

"Moira, then." Charles gave a pleased smile. "Call me Charles then. I believe you. I try not to read people's minds without their permission, unless lives are on the line. But I've sensed that you've told me nothing but the truth. I would still like to view your memories so I can be aware of what dangers we will face together. Give me one moment to center myself before we begin."

[Cassie.] Charles reached out to his twin before beginning to read Moira's mind. [Do you have some time at the moment?]

[Yeah, Charlie. What's up?] Cassandra responded. After having viewed Charles memories of his past life, she took to using many of the modern colloquialisms when they spoke privately. It amused Charles to no end, and confused those around them, also to Charles' amusement.

[I've got an unusual situation here, sending you a packet.] Charles then sent the memory packet of the meeting he'd just had with Moira. After Cassandra digested it, Charles continued. [I'm about to dive into her memories. You want to piggyback me so you can see all this? I'd like your opinion on how this will affect our plans.]

[Ooh, I see how it really is with 'Moira'.] Cassandra stated suggestively. [You're already on a first name basis with her! I saw her blush, you sure move fast mister. Are you sure you it's not just because you want my permission to pursue the lovely Miss Kinross?] Cassandra teased Charles.

[Heaven help me from pushy sisters.] Charles sighed melodramatically. [Well, I'm not saying the attraction isn't there.] He admitted to her.

[Of course not brother, you'd have to be blind not see her 'assets'.] Cassandra interrupted gleefully. [And yes, I want to learn about the lady that interests my dear twin brother.] She finished with authority.

[Fine, fine. I'll get started now.] Charles was actually really amused by his sister's antics. He knew she was just as protective of him as he was of her. And she had long ago demanded the right to reject any potential girlfriend he might be interested in, so her good natured teasing meant she wasn't against him dating Moira, dependent on what they found in her mind, of course.

Charles, with Cassandra piggybacking, dove into Moira's mind to view her past life's memories. Through their training, Charles and Cassandra had long since gotten proficient in utilizing the realm of the mind to speed up their thought processes. It only took them a moment to hold their conversation. It took them only several moments to completely view Moira's three lifetimes.

Silence descended in their conversation as they digested what they'd learned.

[Charles?] Cassandra finally broke the silence.

[Yes, Cassie?] Charles sensed how serious his sister was.

[You have my permission to date her. Be nice.] Cassandra warned. [And one more thing. I want you to find this 'Destiny' person and warn them to stay away from Moira. Let her know just what it feels like to burn alive, slowly, as a warning. That was completely unacceptable for her to do that. It's only fair Destiny understands just what the other side of her extreme terrorism feels like, after all.]

[Just what I was thinking too.] Charles sent a mental image of him grinning ferally. [Shall I introduce you to Moira now?]

[No, not just yet. Tell her about me, but we'll save any meet and greets for in person, later. I wouldn't want to be a spare tire for you as you try to impress the lady.] Cassandra cheekily finished.

[As you wish, sister dear.] Charles chuckled before ending their mental conversation.

Charles opened his eyes, and looked over at Moira, who was struggling to remain calm. He smiled warmly at her.

"I'm sorry you had to experience such a traumatic assault Moira. I'll do everything I can to protect you from a similar situation." Charles reassured her. "There is however some small differences between the lives you experienced and this one. Like you noticed previously, I have hair. Glorious, luxurious hair." Charles joked to lighten the mood. After seeing her smile in return, he continued. "The other thing you should be aware of is that I actually have a twin sister…"

Charles went on to explain some of the changes he'd noticed, while keeping his own reincarnation secret between him and his twin. He'd only just met Moira, and while he had high hopes for her, until some time had passed and they built a strong relationship of trust, he'd keep that particular nugget of information secret.

* * *

Over the next weekend, Cassandra flew over to England to meet Moira. The two ladies got on like a house on fire at their first meeting. They sent Charles on his own way while the two had a girls night out. That extended to the whole weekend before Cassandra returned to the states for her own schooling.

Over the next several months while Charles and Moira studied at Oxford and Cassandra studied at MIT, the two girls would spend a lot of time calling each other and chit chatting. That's what Charles called it, even though the girls didn't use telephones, but talked mind to mind using Cassandra's telepathy.

Sometimes Charles felt a little outnumbered between the two girls. He was a bit paranoid that the girls were plotting against him. But that feeling was totally natural when highly talented, gifted girls were actually plotting against him.

He was of course, correct. Cassandra was using the time to encourage Moira to move their relationship along. For some reason Cassandra seemed gleeful to have a woman good enough to throw at her brother. And it was working, as Charles and Moira got very close, going on many dates together, before becoming more intimate.

[AN: Sorry readers, you'll have to use your imagination for the good parts. I don't want to scrape sandpaper across your minds with my horrible lemons.]

* * *

As Moira and Charles deepened their relationship while they studied together, Charles noticed their relationship garnered a certain amount of jealousy among their fellow students. There weren't many women in the Genetics and Biophysics fields at the time, and since Moira was a very sexy, smart woman, there were a lot of young men who tried to get her interested in them, unsuccessfully.

One man in particular stood out to Charles, a Joseph MacTaggert. He seemed especially fixated on Moira, even going so far as to try to convince Charles that he wouldn't be "worthy" of Moira if he didn't serve in the military first.

'Trying to play head games with me, huh, Joe?' Charles thought before he burst out laughing in the man's face.

Every time Charles started to get control of himself, he looked at MacTaggert's red, angry face and burst out laughing again. This dude was trying to play head games with Charles, and the original Professor X actually bought his stupid line! Bwahaha.

"Stop laughing at me!" Roared MacTaggert. Totally losing his temper, he swung a haymaker right at Charles, while the rest of the students just watched the play, talking and laughing. They hoped MacTaggert could get Charles to break up with Moira, then they might have a chance with her.

Charles lazily stepped into the swing, grabbing Mactaggert's arm, and hip throwing him to the ground before stepping back to avoid any kicks from the man on the ground.

While MacTaggert was shocked from the abrupt throw, Charles did a brief scan of the man's mind, to determine if he would continue to pursuit Moira and make trouble for the couple. What Charles found interesting was that he was instigated in his act of trying to break him and Moira up by Dr. Nathan Milbury, a lecturer at the college.

'How interesting. A man who has a mental defense that I can't easily penetrate, siccing him on me to disrupt our relationship. Well, Dr. Nathan Milbury, I was going to leave you alone, but you've just moved yourself onto my radar with this stunt.' Charles thought.

Charles turned his attention back to MacTaggert. He saw in the man's mind that he would keep pursuing Moira, and he would ramp up his actions, up to and including "arranging" an accident for Charles.

'No, no, this won't do. A little tinker here, a little adjustment there, and the man will barely give any importance to Moira and will go about his life like normal. And, done.'

Only seconds had passed while Charles worked, and MacTaggert had jumped to his feet. Looking around at the crowd that had gathered, MacTaggert was unsure of just why he had swung on the man in front of him.

Giving a muttered, "Sorry, no hard feelings, yeah?" MacTaggert broke through the crowd and left Charles' and Moira's lives for good.

Charles went about his day like normal. That evening he had a mental conference call with Moira and Cassandra about plans to investigate one Dr. Nathan Milbury.

Moira would use her family's resources to investigate the man's background in England, Cassandra would do the same in America, and Charles would keep surveillance on the man.

Just because Charles couldn't read the man's mind without making it abundantly clear that someone was digging around in his mind, didn't mean he couldn't take that step at a later date. But for now Charles simply used the minds around Dr. Milbury to track where he went. He used it as an excuse to exercise his talent.

Lightly touching the minds of humans around the man as well as taking control of birds to follow him let Charles find the man's different bases of operation while using the least amount of psionic power that he could get away with. Charles didn't want to risk alerting the man with impressive mental shields that someone was watching him, and spook him into running.

By Saturday the girls had compiled all public documents about Dr. Milbury. A man who seemed to come out of nowhere, but was an expert in the field of Genetics. Highly suspicious.

The final clue about the man came when Charles had a small squirrel infiltrate the man's hideout on Saturday night. Through the rodents eyes, Charles, Cassandra, and Moira saw the man drop his disguise as Dr. Nathan Milbury and appear as Mr. Sinister.

Mr. Sinister's birth name was Nathaniel Essex. Long story short, he first became a biologist in 1859. He was very unscrupulous about experimenting on humans. He became a Nazi scientist that experimented on the Jews. He gained his longevity and telekinesis abilities from En Sabah Nur, otherwise known as the mutant Apocalypse.

Moira knew a little about him from her previous life, but she never really interacted with the man. Charles shared a little of what he knew about the amoral scientist based off his memories of the comic books.

Charles had long since decided that Cassandra would be one of his moral groundings. It may not be perfect, but having more people that he trusted to advise him would help keep him grounded. And Moira was quickly coming to be another one of the people that would keep him from going all egotist superior master race due to his psychic abilities.

After debating the issue for a few moments, the trio came to a consensus on a plan.

Charles didn't really think there was much to debate on as far as Sinister's ultimate fate, since he had already made a rule about it. Rule 3, No faffing about, Nazis must die. But he promised Cassandra and Moira to wait until Cassandra was there as backup before taking action.

The following week Charles got a lot of practice using his mind splitting technique. He had one mind always keeping an eye on Sinister, so that he wouldn't slip away for any reason. He knew that Sinister was like a bad penny in the comics, always slipping away, always doing more horrendous experiments. Always being a thorn in the side of the X-Men.

And while Charles didn't plan on naming their future organization the X-Men, he also didn't want to have to deal with Sinister in the future. Plus, Nazis must die.

Cassandra arrived by plane the next Saturday morning. The girls spent the day while waiting for Sinister to go to his hideout relaxing and shopping. Charles, as the man, was nominated as the bag carrier. He enjoyed a relaxing day while having one of his minds tracking their target.

Later that evening, when it was time, the trio prepared for action. They all wore dark colored clothing, because it suited the mood of a night raid. It would also be easier for Charles to make them forgettable to any who might look out a window and see them, as opposed to bright attention grabbing colors.

Charles made sure each of them had a Colt M45 as well as a combat knife as backup weapons. While he and Cassandra would rely on their psychic abilities for the most part in combat, Moira didn't have such abilities to protect herself. And having a backup weapon in the odd case of someone being protected against psychic assault was the smarter thing to do.

Just before they launched their assault, Charles noticed a man making his way towards Sinister's labs. Charles was keeping Cassandra and Moira linked with his minds as a non-tech method of communications, so he passed along what he saw.

[A tall American Indian man, six feet six inches tall. Armed with three handguns and two combat knives, along with assorted other gear on his person. It's difficult to read his mind, but not impossible. His alias is Scalphunter, a mercenary and assassin.] Charles reported. [I'm going to try to disable him quietly before he meets up with Sinister.]

[We'll keep an eye on Sinister while meanwhile so he doesn't slip out the back.] Cassie responded.

Charles slipped out of the empty apartment they had been using as a staging ground. He kept his handgun ready, and started his subtle assault as he made his way to the street Scalphunter was walking along.

First he hooked into the tall mercenary's senses, and when he turned a corner, overlaid a different scene from reality, to lead him to a nearby alley.

As Scalphunter walked into the alley, something must have twigged his senses, because he suddenly tensed for a moment before arming himself with his pistols and scanning for a target.

Charles realized he was attempting to be too subtle and clever and it was backfiring on him. He launched a debilitating psychic mindblast at Scalphunters consciousness. It staggered the man who fell to his knees, but didn't knock him out.

Charles then used his telekinesis to rip the guns out of Scalphunter's hands, which set them off. The loud double bang of the guns was especially loud in the middle of the night. With part of his mind, Charles saw that Sinister had heard the gunshots, and was quickly packing up his notes and experiments. Cassie and Moira moved in to capture the man before he could make his escape.

Returning his full attention to the mercenary in front of him, Charles gritted his teeth at how much of a clusterfuck he was turning this whole thing into. He was done playing nice. He noticed Scalphunter was reaching for more weapons. Using his powers, he ripped all the weapons off the man, no sense in taking a chance of him retaliating.

He then reached out and _squeezed_ around the man's neck just right, to block the blood flow to the man's brain. He should have just done that in the first place, because seconds later Scalphunter collapsed, unconscious.

Charles reached out to Cassie and Moira, and was relieved to see they were alright, for the most part. Cassie and Moira had some small cuts that looked to have been caused by flying shards of glass. The lab/hideout was half wrecked, but they had successfully subdued Sinister.

Levitating Scalphunter and his weapons, Charles jogged to rejoin Cassie and Moira in the lab of Sinister. He had to swiftly knock out Scalphunter once more as he started to wake up.

"Well, I don't know about you two, but I need to work on my combat skills." Charles declared as he entered the lab. He dropped Scalphunter in the corner and moved over to fuss over Moira and Cassie, double checking that they were alright. They felt steady in the mind, not shaken up from their brief combat.

"And we're probably going to need to add restraints to our list of equipment necessary for combat if we do this again. You see anything around we can tie these two up with?" Cassie casually stated.

Charles then poked around the lab, looking for rope or- "Oh, look here, just what every villain needs in their unethical lab. Chains and manacles, oh my. Can't let the poor science experiments wander off, now can we?" Charles commented in a faux snooty voice.

"It would be positively gauche of a mad scientist to be missing the necessary accoutrements." Moira continued the joke, airily putting her nose in the air as she eyed the manacles that Charles was putting on the two prisoners while they were still unconscious.

With combat over, and the feeling of relief of having survived, they soon started laughing and giggling at the silliness of it all. After several minutes, they calmed down, and Charles got to work seeing what he could dig out of their prisoner's minds, while Cassie and Moira starting looking through the records that Nathaniel Essex had made in his long years of unethical experimenting on humans.

They soon had a decent picture of the work of Mr. Sinister, and it was horrific. Thousands of people, hundreds of thousands of babies, experimented on until destruction. All so the mad scientist could learn about the mutation that allowed people to develop powers.

Charles also learned that Sinister, posing as Dr. Mulbury, had worked on a certain government project in New Mexico called Project: Black Womb. They had studied thousands of children in post-natal holding tanks, most of whom were "mutants".

The project was headed by Amanda Mueller, who had, according to Essex's mind, been providing many experimental subjects for him for years, since the late 1870s. Mueller would get pregnant with different men and then miscarry them in order to provide subjects for him to experiment on. Someone as amoral, long lived, and helpful to Sinister as this was someone they would have to be on the lookout for in the future.

Also on the project were Dr. Alexander Ryking, Dr. Kurt Marko, and Irene Adler.

Charles knew who Marko was, the father of the man who might one day become the Juggernaut. He also recognized the name Irene Adler, but couldn't place it. It had something to do with his memories of the comics from his past life, but he couldn't quite place what importance it had.

Moving on, Charles deep scanned Scalphunter's head for answers about the man. His birth name was John Greycrow. He had joined the army and fought for America in the Second World War, but during the war he had killed several of his fellow Army officers, which led to him being executed by firing squad for his crimes. Since then he had turned mercenary and took on many despicable jobs of assassination and kidnapping. Which is what led him to work for Sinister, finding and kidnapping "mutants".

Breaking into Sinister's head was much more difficult for Charles due to the work that Apocalypse had done to him. Charles was successful in the end, and was able to review the man's past deeds as well as future goals. Left alone, Essex would continue experimenting on humans and Metas, trying to make the most perfect mutant, and try to kill Apocalypse.

After some debate back and forth on how to deal with the two men, Charles soon convinced the two ladies that dealing with them permanently was the smart decision. He didn't have to work too hard at it, their past record and future danger was convincing enough.

They soon gave them a lethal injection with the chemical cocktails Sinister had on hand, and disposed of their remains in the incinerators Sinister used to deal with his experimental subjects.

As they watched the incinerator do its work, Charles briefly thought about how it might be considered some kind of poetic justice in disposing of Sinister by using the same equipment and method as he employed on so many poor souls over the years. Charles, however, decided that mentioning it right after executing two men would be far too uncouth. And too much like some movie action hero spouting one liners for his comfort.

Instead, he settled for hugging Cassie and Moira in comfort, silently reassuring them that they made the right decision to put down a rabid dog, and heartless killer for hire.


	3. Chapter 3

For the rest of the 1951-52 academic year, Charles and Moira continued attending school while cataloguing the research notes of Essex. The knowledge itself was not evil, the evil was how Essex gained that knowledge.

Charles felt that it would be a disservice to the victims of Essex if he were to simply destroy everything. It would make all the victims deaths completely pointless. So as a tribute and memorial to them, he and Moira would use that knowledge to help people, rather than hurt them.

Charles and Moira would often travel back to Scotland to meet her parents, or back to New York to meet Charles' parents. Charles found that he quite liked Lord and Lady Kinross. Despite their aristocratic lineage, they were two very down to earth people, and quite caring of their "genius" daughter.

Cassie, Charles, and Moira often consulted with the Xavier parents about how their organization would work and where the shelters, homes, and clinics would be built. They soon started building some of the infrastructure and hiring people to run each location.

They came up with a name for the group. In keeping with the tradition of the Marvel verse, their group name had to be an acronym that could be spoken easily. Thus the World Improvement and New Growth Society was founded, shortened to W.I.N.G.S. or just WINGS.

'A nice uplifting name.' Charles optimistically thought.

When Moira's parents heard about the group and its aims and ambitions, they were quite impressed and decided to add what wealth and prestige they could to the organization. They were quite helpful in getting funding from other wealthy individuals in society as well.

Quite early they had made the decision to avoid getting any government help for funding. Anytime a government provides money for an organization, it would give them a certain amount of power over the decision making of that organization. And they were not prepared to allow elected idiots tell them who they could or could not help.

On the topic of governments and what they felt entitled to, Charles felt it was needed for Cassie, Moira, and him to finally get some actual combat instruction. The assault on Sinister and Scalphunter, and how fumble handed it was, made him aware that while he and Cassie had powers, if they couldn't use them effectively, then they were more a distraction than anything. And Moira didn't even have any active powers, so Charles wanted her to be able to protect herself.

So every week for the year they spent some time learning martial combat from what experts they could find, as well as spending time on the range learning to be accurate and swift with their fire.

Charles was once more the focus of jealousy at the gun range, due to being associated with such beautiful and talented ladies. Charles tried to keep his smugness at being him down, but it leaked out occasionally, leading to a shoulder slug from his sister or a waist pinch from his girlfriend, just to keep his ego in check.

What could he say, it was good to be him.

The final project of the year that Cassie was in charge of was to recreate the Super Soldier lab equipment of Dr. Erskine. They had to be sneaky and gather the needed parts and equipment in a very roundabout way.

The U.S. government had some idea of what parts and chemicals Dr. Erskine had used, so they would be sure to notice if any one person or group were suddenly purchasing the needed equipment. And then they would be very _interested _in just how the Xaviers knew about the project. Too much trouble.

So it took a while to gather everything needed to set up the lab without coming to the notice of certain agencies.

At the beginning of the summer of 1952, Moira's parents and the Xaviers gathered at the secret lab that Cassie had built on one of the Xavier properties. With all the Government agents, spies, Metas, and other such people running around this world, Charles and Cassie wanted the rest of the group, especially Moira, to have the added security of having the Super Soldier Serum. It would help them protect themselves.

Several hours later found the group of parents were marveling at their new physical prowess. Everyone had grown at least three inches taller, and looked like they had been hardcore runners or swimmers all their life with streamlined muscles, rather than the bulky muscles of a weight lifter.

Charles had never seen his parents acting so young, like teenagers. Randy teenagers. Charles couldn't help but be amused to see his parents playing around.

And they weren't the only ones. Charles certainly enjoyed how frisky Moira was that night.

* * *

A few weeks later Charles set out for Cairo, Egypt while he still had some summer vacation from college. Charles knew that in the comics Professor X had spent time travelling the world and making contacts with Metas, recruiting some of them to his group, and making allies of others.

Charles felt this was a decent idea to make sure that WINGS had friends and allies around the world. If they didn't ever hear about people in need of help around the world, how could they possibly offer assistance? If they never learned about overbearing government agencies or racist scumbags, how could they curtail their activities?

Charles chose to visit Cairo first because he vaguely remembered that Professor X had run into Ororo Munroe, aka Storm, at some point when she was just a little girl. Ororo had been living on the streets as a pickpocket and thief, and had tried to steal from Professor X. After realizing she was a "mutant", Professor X decided not to help the little street girl because, according to what Charles remembered, Professor X didn't want to shock the girl with true knowledge of her powers.

Charles found that reasoning by Professor X a bit suspect. Charles could speculate quite a few reasons why Professor X didn't help Ororo at the time *cough*independent young street girl not willing to listen to and trust some random guy*cough*, but ultimately Charles had no way to discover the truth about Professor X's real reasons.

But Charles felt it was pretty callous of Professor X not to help out a fellow Meta who was forced to live a life on the streets. Charles planned to make contact and help the girl out, at least to make sure she had housing and education.

When Charles arrived at Cairo he first checked into his hotel. He didn't know how long it would take to find the naturally white haired girl, but there was no reason not to be comfortable while doing it. After a short rest and dinner Charles began scanning the city, looking for the young girl.

His days soon became routine, as he spent most of his time going section by section through the poor parts of the city, looking for the distinctive white hair and blue eyed girl. He would only pause his search for food, sleep, and other daily necessities.

On the fourth day of his stay at the hotel, he was once more going to the in hotel restaurant for food, when he was delayed by a large group exiting one of the conference rooms. Apparently a meeting had just finished, and the group was mingling around the hallway before leaving. It seemed the many writers, editors, photographers, and others associated with the publishing industries had a conference this week going on in the hotel.

Since Charles had no real interest in publishing, but he recognized that it would be beneficial to their WINGS group to have many friends in the industry, he changed his plans for the next few hours. He smoothly inserted himself in the group, chatting and making acquaintances.

It seems his decision to mingle was the correct one, Charles didn't know how he could be so lucky. After a few minutes of mingling, he introduced himself to a photographer by the name of David Munroe and his wife, N'Daré. It seems he arrived in a time before Ororo was orphaned and had to live on the streets. It was quite lucky for Charles he ran into them here.

Charles easily made friendly with the Munroes and made an appointment for later that week to meet and talk about work and contracting David for work. Charles couldn't seem to remember what had ended the two energetic people's lives, but perhaps if they were moved to back to the states for work, they could avoid whatever it was, and keep Ororo off the streets.

Now that his mission of meeting and helping Ororo was progressing well, and Charles no longer had to spend time searching for them, he chose to do the sight seeing tourist thing, and maybe find more interesting people he could befriend.

Charles thus spent the next few days wandering the city, seeing the sights, and making friends. What was interesting was that as Charles was doing his thing, he felt like someone was always watching him, but he could never catch the watcher. The feeling of always having someone's eyes on him was certainly making him paranoid and on guard.

The time finally arrived for Charles' meeting with the Munroes. He arrived at their house for dinner on time, carrying a gift of a bottle of fine wine. Charles finally met the five year old Ororo, who was quite the precocious and cute little girl.

The dinner was going well, with entertaining stories and good conversation, when Charles picked up a very loud mental cry of fear from a large group of people. Charles immediately sent his mind ranging to see what the cause of the fear was for so many minds to scream so loudly. He started sweating heavily in nervousness when he discovered a plane was out of control and falling from the sky. It looked like the plane would crash near the Munroes house. Charles felt a jolt of surprise as he realized this is likely the event that caused the orphaning of Ororo.

'Not on my watch!' Charles thought determinedly, facing in the direction of the plane crashing.

"What's the matter, Charles?" N'Daré asked Charles, wondering why he was acting so strangely.

"A plane is crashing." Charles didn't have time to sugar coat it. "I'm going to try something, if I don't it looks like it will land right on us."

David exhibited disbelief that Charles could possibly know that information, but N'Daré just calmly accepted his statement, nodded, and said, "We shall endeavor not to distract you then."

Charles closed his eyes to concentrate more, and reached out with his mind powers. [Cassie! I need your help with some heavy lifting here to prevent a disaster.] Charles sent a brief memory of the falling plane.

Feeling her assent, he quickly linked their minds in gestalt, and reached out with their combined powers to the plane. With their combined telekinetic power, Charles started pushing the plane from behind.

He didn't know if they had the power to lift the plane while in gestalt, it was a recent skill he and Cassie had developed. They knew they were stronger in gestalt than a simple 1+1=2, but they hadn't ever tested just how much they could lift together. But pushing the plane similar to what they would get from their malfunctioning engines would give the pilot enough control to glide to an emergency landing instead of crash landing on the house he was in.

Several minutes of mind straining effort later, and the plane was safely, if roughly landed in the streets beyond the house. The loud sound of the plane landing roughly in the streets let David know that Charles hadn't been spouting nonsense, and his grateful looks Charles' way relieved Charles' worry that he wouldn't have to deal with someone being irrationally afraid of him because of his powers.

[Damn, Charlie, you better stay out of trouble from now on. And I am not covering for you with Moira, you'll have to call and let her know you're fine soon to keep her from worrying.] Cassandra muttered in Charles' mind.

[Thanks sis.] Charles sarcastically replied, but with underlying feelings of thanks for the help she provided. [Couldn't have done it without you.]

[Of course not!] She smugly replied. [Now, I've got things to do, later bro.]

Charles sent a smile back at her, before disconnecting from the gestalt. Now that the emergency was over, Charles felt quite drained of energy. Smiling tiredly at the Munroes, Charles opened his mouth to explain the situation, when the person that had been lurking around watching him all week chose that moment to attack.

An overbearing mental weight bore down on Charles, taking him by surprise. The mind behind the attack felt old. Old and dark, evil. Charles barely brought his defenses up in time to keep himself from being squashed. It felt like tons of weight was pressed on his mind, trying to smash him from existence.

David and N'Daré started looking quite concerned when Charles, who a moment ago had looked relieved the crisis was over, suddenly looked like he was straining himself greatly. He was red faced and sweating, and collapsed from his chair to the floor.

Charles felt like he was on the verge of failing. He was already tired from the effort of stopping the plane crash, and this attack came when he was at his most vulnerable. He couldn't even spare any effort from his defenses to contact Cassandra again, or split his mind for a more effective defense.

"Someone's attacking my mind. Don't know if they want me or you. Get to safety." Gritting his teeth, he ground out this warning to David and N'Daré, while Ororo looked on. The little girl didn't understand what was happening, but she knew it wasn't good, and she was filled with fear, looking to her parents to fix what was happening.

Because she was looking at her parents at this moment, she was the only one who noticed the look of fierce determination come over N'Daré's face. Ororo's mother pulled out a necklace from under her dress that had a large ruby mounted on it.

With one hand grasping the ruby, N'Daré reached out with the other and placed her hand on Charles' head. She then started chanting, ignoring for the moment David's questions about what she was doing.

The moment N'Daré started chanting, Charles felt strength flooding his body and mind, allowing him to shore up his defenses that had been a moment away from failing.

Once more feeling strong, Charles quickly employed his three minds technique. One mind was focused on defense, one on offense, attacking back at the mind from an unexpected direction, and the third was busy tracing the mind attack back to its source, looking for a location of the person behind the mind.

Charles defender mind solidified his defenses, redirecting the power of the attack away from him, making the attack useless. He kept shifting, solidifying his defenses, then withdrawing like smoke, never letting the attacker get set and bring the full weight of his power back into attack.

Meanwhile the attacker mind started launching brutal attacks on Charles attacker. Charles had never really battled another psychic mind before, so at first his attacks wasted more energy than they did damage to the enemy mind. But as he saw how his attacks worked or not, and saw the attacks of the enemy, he continually refined his attacks, getting better and better at it. Some attacks became like blades, stabbing and slashing, draining the energy of the enemy. Some acted as blunt cannonballs, battering and staggering the enemy's ability to fight.

Finally, the searcher mind found the physical location of the enemy. It was time to counterattack. Now that the attacker mind had a location, his strikes became more accurate, able to pinpoint the enemy mind. The searcher mind, having learned from the attacker mind, joined in attacking the enemy.

With two minds attacking him, the enemy soon lost momentum, and was forced to turn solely to defense. Now that the pressure was off, the defender mind started launching occasional attacks at the mind as well while mostly keeping himself ready to defend against any desperate last minute attacks.

Charles' minds soon started really doing damage to the psyche of the enemy, tearing him apart. Every piece that Charles tore off reduced the power of the enemy, and gave Charles a fleeting impression of the man's past.

Charles soon found out that the attacker was Amahl Farouk, host of the parasitic entity known as the Shadow King. Charles soon gained more impressions of Amahl Farouk's past. He had once worked with Baron Wolfgang von Strucker to attempt to change Britain's political landscape so they would remain neutral or allies of the Nazis. Beyond that, Amahl Farouk was a man mired in evil. He would use, abuse, and kill anyone and anything to attain his goals.

So when Charles felt the man surrender and beg for clemency, Charles didn't hesitate or give the man and the parasitic Shadow King entity a chance. He tore every last piece of power and darkness up, shredding their mind and power apart, beyond hope of reconstitution. Rules 2, 3, and 4 most definitely applied here. The man was an unrepentant power hungry evil Nazi helper, crying crocodile tears. The moment he was released he would go back to his evil ways, and come back to haunt Charles in the future. No mercy.

Sighing in relief at the near defeat turned into a win, Charles once more opened his eyes. He saw N'Daré still chanting with her hand on his head. With only his eyes, Charles would not be able to tell that anything was happening, but with his mind's eye, he saw the power being transferred from N'Daré's ruby necklace, through her body and hand, and into Charles. The energy itself felt good, kind, and wise. Or maybe it was N'Daré herself that was flavoring the power as such. Charles couldn't tell.

"Thank you, N'Daré, you can stop now. The attacker is neutralized. Thank you. If it weren't for your help, he would have crushed me." Charles sincerely said.

N'Daré ceased her chanting, and tucked the ruby necklace back in her clothes with a nod and smile. "Thanks are also to be given to you, Charles. If not for you, that plane may have ended our lives this day."

The little five year old Ororo saw that everything was fine now, and jumped into the conversation excitedly. "Mama! What was that light from your necklace?" She exclaimed as she suddenly jumped into her mother's arms. "Can I see your necklace?" Ororo asked.

"Maybe later, my dear Oro." Which caused the little girl to pout. "Why don't we have some cake now?"

Successfully diverted, the mother daughter duo left to retrieve the cake from the kitchen while the girl excitedly talked about how good her mother's cake was.

Once they had left the room, David looked over at Charles, a look of deep thought on his face. Finally opening his mouth, he began questioning Charles. "I'm a little out of my depth here. Just what is going on here? It seems like you have powers. What do you want with my family?" Seeming to remember just how he found out about Charles' powers, a look of embarrassment came over David's face. "I don't want you to think I'm ungrateful. Thanks for saving us from the plane crash." David rushed his words.

Nodding graciously, Charles smiled back at David. "Well, your wife just saved me from an attack, so I'd say we're even." Charles started when he was interrupted by the returning N'Daré.

"Even so, we are still in your debt. Who knows if the attacker was here for us, and you saved us from him too." N'Daré interjected with an air of dignity so rarely seen in most people. "Once we are settled with dessert."

"Yay! Cake!" Ororo cheered.

"We can discuss everything more comfortably." N'Daré calmly finished with a loving smile at her daughter's enthusiasm.

"Well, I can taste why someone is so excited for cake." Charles stated with a teasing smile at the young Ororo after having a bite of the delectable dessert. While the young girl, mouth full, was nodding in serious agreement, Charles turned back to the parents. Charles gave the couple a brief accounting of the X-gene and how it sometimes awakened powers in people, and how it seems to becoming more and more prevalent.

"And that's where I and my twin sister, who is currently back in the states, got our psychic powers." Charles explained.

N'Daré then explained to Charles and David, who hadn't known until now about her powers, that she was from a lineage of African priestesses. They were all born with white hair and blue eyes and had a talent for magic. But all she had left of her legacy was a stone tablet with the chant she had used to transfer power to Charles and her ruby necklace.

Charles mentioned that he might be able to find a group of magic users at a future date if she was interested in learning to do more with her skills, which she deferred until her daughter was a bit older.

Charles then continued on to explain his group and their goals.

"The prevalence of people awakening their gifts seems to be rising lately. We have no idea why, really. But based on how we humans generally react to people who are different, or fear the strange and dangerous, there is a good chance that the more people who awaken their gifts and are involved in accidents, or reports of those using their powers for criminal enterprises, the greater the fear and hate against anyone different will be among the average person."

Charles paused to see how the Munroes took his assessment of humanity in general. Based on the looks on their faces, Charles could see that they had some idea of just how hateful humans could be. They were a couple of different races in the early fifties. It seemed likely to Charles that the reason they moved from the States to Egypt was to avoid that very attitude.

"My family and friends have decided that we would take an active role in setting up support systems in place to get help for those Metas who can't help themselves, and protect them from angry mobs, criminals wanting to use them, or governments who might want to experiment on them or make them disappear. Even if they are born different, humans still deserve human rights."

"One of the aspects we feel deserves quite a bit of attention is the use of entertainment, movies, pictures, books and whatnot, to begin to shift the social consciousness and morals of people. If we can start to shift people's attitudes to be more accepting of those different from them before big conflicts start, it would be much easier to keep everything from blowing up into conflict."

After David and N'Daré expressed their desire to participate in the group, Charles talked with them for a couple more hours about how they could participate, who of their friends and associates would likely join, and set up a future meeting in a couple of days to continue to talk and plan.

After a couple of weeks of meeting with the Munroe's friends, setting up cooperation and communications, and starting the local chapter of WINGS, Charles set off for home with a lighter heart.

His original goal, of taking Ororo off the streets rendered unnecessary by saving her family made him feel especially good. When he got the news a couple weeks later that the Munroes were expecting another child on the way, words couldn't quite describe just how happy/proud Charles felt about meddling with the plot. Ororo and her family's future was immeasurably brighter than the pain filled drama that would have occurred if that plane had crashed on their house.

And taking out the evil of the Shadow King would also have a great effect on lessening the amount of victims that would have suffered under him. Charles felt a great sense of affirmation for his chosen path in life. Already he was making a difference.

Soon the summer was over and he and Moira headed back to Oxford for more schooling. While Cassandra headed back to MIT to further her knowledge and projects.

* * *

The academic year was quite peaceful for Charles, aside from dealing with the dagger glances of the jealous young scholars who wished they could have such an outstanding girl as Moira.

Charles, Moira, and Cassandra continued their combat training, becoming more and more skilled.

Charles also started spending time in the local clinics, helping those suffering from the mental issues still hounding them as a result of their time in the war, or as prisoners of the Nazis. Over the year, he developed quite the reputation for being able to help problem patients. No one ever knew he was so successful because of his psychic abilities. That wasn't something he was willing to let be generally known.

Because of his work in the clinic that year, Charles received a request from the head of the local clinic from his friend for Charles to visit their clinic in Haifa, Israel to assist with some of the more difficult cases that were traumatized by their time in the Nazi camps. After consulting with his girls, Charles agreed to spend a few weeks the summer of 1953 working with them.

Upon leaving the airport at Haifa, Charles was struck by a dry heat wave. The climate was very different from England, or his native land of New York. Thankfully his constitution as a result of the super soldier serum was robust, and he didn't feel too uncomfortable.

Charles got a ride to the clinic where he met Daniel Shomron, the head of the clinic. They soon set up what hours he would work, and talked about the patients Charles would be attempting to help recover, going over their history and what had been done for them so far.

He then made his way to the housing that had been arranged for him. Before retiring for the evening Charles spent some time talking with Moira and Cassie, checking in so they wouldn't worry. They were spending their time in Scotland, attending some fundraiser functions. Charles got a good laugh at their recounting of the inept pick up lines they had to endure while maintaining good relations so the money would continue to flow.

The next day Charles began his rounds of the clinic. Many of the patients were simply stuck in their head, having retreated from the torture they were subjected to until they no longer noticed any stimulus. Charles began gradually, first with some bits of music and then moving on to gently talking to their buried minds.

Through the next two weeks, Charles noticed that there were several volunteers that showed up regularly to help the clinic. One of whom was a black haired man who stood at 6 feet 2 inches. He noticed the volunteer had the number tattoo of an inmate of the concentration camps tattooed on his hand. Eventually they spoke with each other, introduced themselves, and that's when Charles realized he was meeting Magneto for the first time.

Or rather, Charles was meeting "Erik Magnus" for the first time. Charles found him to be an intense and rather focused man who seemed to be trying to find a purpose for his life after having lost everything more than once. He had been through the ringer more than a time or two.

From what Charles remembered from the comics, at this point in time Erik had been through the camps, seeing the darkest part of humanity. Then he married and had a daughter. But that daughter had been killed by the KGB after his boss had reported his powers. He then killed the troops who murdered his daughter, and his wife ran from him in fear.

Charles could see that Erik was a man who was bent and battered, but not broken. And when he made his decision as to what to do with his life, he would stick to it with a single minded focus that would be astounding.

Charles soon found himself talking about his life with Erik, about what he's learned, goals, and the purpose of WINGS. Erik in turn shares some of the less painful past he's lived. The coming conflict that both Erik and Charles sees coming between Metas and the rest of humanity is something they often debated on what should be done.

In another timeline, where Professor X befriended Magneto, they would eventually have a vast difference of opinion about methods of action, and what is acceptable or not.

But in this story, when Erik would get fed up with what he thought was the overly naïve hope for a good future from his new friend, and angrily questioned, "But what do you do when they don't let you live your life in peace? What then, Charles!?"

Charles would just grimly smile, and reply, "Why then, dear friend, you make them leave you alone. Sometimes overbearing fascists only understand one language. And if it's the last lesson they learn? Well, then they can serve as an object lesson to the next one down the line of what not to do, right?"

Erik simply stared, flabbergasted at his new friend's bloodthirsty smile, before laughing. Deep belly laughs, with more than a bit of insanity mixed in. And more than a bit of hysterics at finally, possibly, finding someone who _understood._ Who may, possibly, offer a bit more of a hope filled future. A blood stained hopeful future, but hope was present nonetheless.

It was at that moment that Erik made the decision that he would follow this naïve yet bloodthirsty man back to his home, to see if there would be a place for him in this organization. To see if he could make a difference in the coming conflicts.

"Yes, my friend. We will _make_ the future we want, yes?" Erik finally wheezed.

* * *

Among the patients that Charles helped revive was one feisty lady, by the name of Gabrielle Haller. Charles soon learned, by entering her mind, that she had been tortured into a coma by none other than Mr. Sinister.

Once Gabrielle was woken up from the coma, Erik joined Charles in helping her rehabilitate her muscles, and give her company. She soon became friends with the two men, and gave as good as she got in a lighthearted jesting manner.

One morning shortly after she was woken up, Charles arrived at the clinic to find her bed empty. Puzzled as to where she could have got off to, he began by seeking out the night staff. He thought the staff hadn't been at the desk because they were taking care of some emergency, but he soon smelled blood at the nurse station.

He soon found blood on the floor, and two bodies were stuffed in a bathroom, shot in the head. Thankfully the patients, aside from Gabrielle were left alone. But who had killed the staff and abducted Gabrielle?

[Erik.] Charles reached out to Erik mentally, who hadn't been scheduled to arrive that day. [We've got an emergency. Someone killed the night staff here, and it looks like they abducted Gabrielle. How soon can you get to my room with some wheels so we can track them down?]

Despite the shock Erik felt at being contacted mentally, he responded swiftly, putting aside the revelation that Charles had psychic powers in the face of the more pressing need to save their friend.

[Give me 15 minutes and I'll be there.] Erik replied.

[Good, I'll be trying to track them down by mind. After we get her back I'll explain my power and why I never mentioned it before.] Charles answered.

[No worries, my friend we all have secrets and things we'd rather not talk about at first. I'll be there shortly.]

Fifteen minutes later Erik arrived, and Charles had tracked down the group of kidnappers. Charles left his apartment and got in the passenger side of the vehicle Erik was driving. As Charles gave directions and Erik took off as fast as he could.

"You'll need this." Charles stated as he handed Erik one of his spare handguns, ammo, and a combat knife. "Nazi scum have kidnapped her. A man by the name of Baron von Strucker and six men. They seem to be trying to get information about a gold shipment from her to fund their rise to power."

Erik looked at the gun and knife, and smiled. It wasn't a nice smile.

"So, mind powers, then?"

Charles nodded, not that Erik was looking while driving. "Yes. I have telepathy and telekinesis." Charles glanced over at Erik. "You seem to be taking it well." He commented in a questioning manner. Charles naturally knew about Erik's powers, but he couldn't come out and say it without Erik thinking he'd read his mind.

"You're not the only one with secrets, Charles." Erik idly commented as he levitated the knife and made it spin 360 degrees.

"Telekinesis?" Charles asked.

"Not as such. I seem to have power over magnetism. Anything metal is in my purview."

"Hmm, Cassie would love to work with you on her projects then." Charles stated in a blasé manner.

"Your sister? She also has powers?" Erik seemed intrigued.

"Yup, she's a telekinetic, mostly, and she loves technology. So working with someone who can directly manipulate magnetic fields would make her day."

"You'll have to introduce us then. It might be interesting." Erik had a faint smile on his face. "We're here."

They were in front of a large warehouse, the doors closed.

"These large double doors open into an open space. The six men are sitting at a table slightly to the left there." Charles pointed as he quickly described the setup. "Strucker has Gabrielle in an office to the right there. I'll use my powers to keep him from hurting her while we bust in and kill the six soldiers of his, then we move to end him. Sound like a plan?"

"Perfect. I'll make sure any bullets they fire don't reach us. Let's move."

Suiting actions to words, the two men slammed the doors open, startling the men sitting at the table. Not bothering to say anything, they opened fire on the six men, gunning them down before they even managed to pull a weapon.

"That's the beauty of getting the drop on Nazis." Charles quipped as he eyed the bodies. Erik barked a short laugh.

"Indeed. A better use of bullets I can't imagine."

Charles gave his own laugh as they made their way to the office swiftly.

Slamming open the door, they saw the scene of Strucker staring blankly at the wall as Charles held him frozen. Thankfully he hadn't had time to start torturing Gabrielle before they arrived. Erik swiftly cut the ropes binding Gabrielle, freeing her. Then he gave Charles a subtle gesture to escort her out while he dealt with Strucker.

Charles soon sensed Strucker's death. He knew that Strucker had made himself into a huge problem in the comics, and it seemed that he died almost too easily. It made Charles nervous, thinking about if he was going to pull a resurrection later on.

But as Charles thought about it, it kind of made sense that it would be easy right now. If they hadn't ended his life, he would have continued to live, gaining experience in spycraft and fighting. Gaining money and being a duplicitous little shit.

But at this point in time, he's at his most vulnerable. He's been spending the past several years struggling to stay off the radar of the governments, and struggling to find funds to rebuild his forces. If Charles had been as stupid as Professor X was and let him go, only bad things would have resulted.

Now that Charles comforted himself about how easily the man went down, he focused on helping Gabrielle out to the car. Erik soon joined them, and started driving them away. Charles used his abilities to make sure no one in the area would connect them to the incident, as well as start a fire in the warehouse to burn the bodies.

Knowing what the gold cache that Strucker was looking for, Charles didn't really want any "official" attention on them asking questions about what they were hiding, why did they kill them, and why not contact the authorities, etc.

If they had waited for help from the authorities, they would probably only be finding Gabrielle's body in a day or two. Charles didn't have any patience for dealing with the death of his friend, or the aftermath of talking to the authorities in the first place.

After talking with Gabrielle about just why some Nazis would be kidnapping her, the trio decided they would seek out the treasure and split it between the three of them.

Charles also shared with Gabrielle the basic information about WINGS, and that he and Erik would be leaving soon to rejoin his family in New York. Gabrielle made the decision that she wanted to be involved with their group and would follow them to New York.

When they arrived at his home in New York, it was to find only Cassandra and Moira there, as his parents were at a conference. After introductions were made, he could see Cassandra's interest in Erik's abilities as she pulled him to her lab to start interrogating him.

Over the few weeks before the start of the new academic year, Charles noticed that Moira and Cassandra dragged Gabrielle along on their girl nights out. He felt like he was being plotted against once more.

The week before school started up, Charles finally found what he'd been searching for on Erik's behalf. The group of five friends made a trip to Serbia, where they found the grave of Erik's ex-wife, who died in childbirth, and his young year old twins, Wanda and Pietro, at the Maximoffs.

Erik seemed to be in a daze, not sure just how to take it, suddenly having children again after the death of his daughter. Cassandra especially took it upon herself to be there for him. Charles had noticed the glint of interest in her eyes when she looked at Erik, and Charles had no objection to them getting together. He knew Erik was the type of man who would kill to protect his family, and that was good enough for Charles to entrust his sister to him.

Erik and Cassandra soon returned to New York with his twins. It took some work, but Erik was convinced to make use of their mansion to raise his children. Charles could tell that Cassandra wanted to be a part of their lives, and she wasn't going to take no for an answer.

Charles soon got another surprise when it was time to return for his next year at Oxford. In the previous years Charles and Moira had moved into a house together when they started dating, and this year Gabrielle joined them in the house while taking classes herself. Charles sense that he was being plotted against was growing.

When they went on their first date as a trio, Charles knew for sure he had been plotted against by the females in his life. But who was he to argue with the smart beautiful women in his life? And he had all that stamina from the super soldier serum to make sure that everyone in the relationship was satisfied.


End file.
